Remembering Robert Altman: From the Controversy Over 'M*A*S*H' to His Prescient 'Gosford Park'

There’s never a bad time to recall the filmmaking genius of the late Robert Altman. But tonight brings a better reason than usual: Ron Mann’s illuminating new documentary Altman that airs at 8 p.m.  Wednesday night on Epix and reveals some of the unique, exuberant method behind such enduring classics as M*A*S*H, Nashville, and The Player.

Altman’s widow, Kathryn, and Gosford Park costar and producer Bob Balaban got on the phone with Yahoo Movies to remember the legendary iconoclast who died in 2006. They told us some fascinating stories about his films and career, from the controversy surrounding M*A*S*H to the way Gosford Park lives on in a certain hit TV show:

M*A*S*H made Altman a rock star, but not everyone agreed it was a masterpiece.

Kathryn Altman remembers attending the 1970 sneak preview of the raucous Korean War satire in San Francisco. The response overwhelmed her and her husband:  “Afterwards, we came down an escalator and people were screaming. We got in the limo and people beat on the windows.” Despite that, Balaban notes, “you can’t overemphasize how much the studio hated M*A*S*H.” Altman’s trademark overlapping dialogue in particular displeased the studio. The technique is commonplace now, but back then, “[studio chief] Jack Warner said, ‘That man doesn’t know how to direct because everyone is talking all at once.’”

Altman cast unconventional actors as unconventional heroes.

In the seventies, when casting a male lead meant calling Robert Redford, Altman hired actors like Elliott Gould (The Long Goodbye, M*A*S*H) and Donald Sutherland (M*A*S*H). According to Balaban, “Robert cast with people that resembled human beings, which was also part of his normal sensibility. He hated artifice…. The joy of watching an Altman movie is that it wakes you up. It’s unconventional because that’s the way he saw life.”

He also found substantial roles for offbeat women.

"He was the George Cukor of his day," says Kathryn Altman, pointing to such female-centric movies as Three Women, A Prairie Home Companion, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. “He loved to work with women…. Sally Kellerman [in M*A*S*H] had never been used before like that. He brought out the humor in her. And then Shelley Duvall with that wonderful face was born to be Olive Oyl in Popeye. Paramount wanted Goldie Hawn.”

He crossed over to HBO before it was cool.

Long before HBO dominated the Emmy race, Altman created the political mockumentary miniseries Tanner ‘88 for the cable channel. Set against the 1988 presidential election, it featured the actor Michael Murphy playing a politician running for the nation’s highest honor. His fictional character collided with real people including Pat Robertson, Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson — years before Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat. Balaban recalls, “I can’t think of another director combining real people and actors in this kind of scenario. It’s as pioneering on TV as anything anyone has done.”

Altman's  Gosford Park lives on in the period hit Downton Abbey.

The Emmy-winning PBS soap owes a debt to Altman’s 2001 upstairs-downstairs ensemble murder mystery. (Downton creator Julian Fellowes actually won an Oscar for writing the Gosford Park screenplay.) “The folks at Downton Abbey are pleasantly aware that their series was born of Gosford Park. Front and center is Maggie Smith, in a continuation of her countess dowager role,” says Balaban. While some considered a period drawing-room drama incompatible with Altman’s hip style, Balaban sees the movie of a piece with the director’s work: “All of Robert’s movies involved large groups that became extended families. When Robert started working it had twelve main characters. In the end, it had 25 main characters.”